John Wiley & Sons Inc. (NYSE: JWa, JWb) is paying $175 million for CrossKnowledge.

CrossKnowledge, headquartered in Suresnes, France, provides digital learning services to multi-national corporations, universities and businesses. The services include managerial and leadership skills assessments, courses, certification and training programs. The transaction is expected to close May 1.

The deal comes about two weeks after John Wiley acquired Profiles Internationalfor $51 million. Profiles provides employment assessment and talent management services that employers use to select job candidates.

"In today’s knowledge-based economy, organizations of all different shapes and sizes are looking to address skill, productivity and performance gaps through investment in their current workforce rather than hiring additional resources. At the same time, they are moving from face-to-face training to e-learning solutions that offer individualized assessment and prescriptive learning," says Wiley CEO Steve Smith.

Publishing company John Wiley spent a few years shedding assets – including non-fiction titles, which it sold to HarperCollins Canada, and general interest titles, which it sold to Turner Publishing.

The e-learning space has attracted several buyers. Recently, PluralSight LLC paid $45 million for Digital-Tutors, an online training resource. In February, McGraw-Hill Education bought the rest of adaptive learning company Area9 Aps, which develops technology to provide personalized training.